


on the same wavelength

by paradoxikay



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 10:37:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8053063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradoxikay/pseuds/paradoxikay
Summary: Saruhiko isn’t good with kids, but maybe he can make exceptions for the ones who don’t scream so much.





	on the same wavelength

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during, and was originally written directly after, the first chapter of K Countdown.
> 
> ...I think it was the first chapter, anyway.

Of all the laps on offer, the captain’s nephew _had_ to chose Saruhiko’s.

He’s quieter than his sister, at least – if Saruhiko has to deal with small children, he supposes he’s grateful that he didn’t get saddled with the one yelling and knocking things over. But he still doesn’t want to be here at all, and formulating an escape plan would be a lot easier if he had any idea how to get this kid _out_ of his lap and into someone else’s.

(The last time he tried to pick up a toddler she kicked him and started screaming, and he nearly dropped her. He’s not sure if all toddlers are ticking time bombs waiting to blow out his eardrums, but he’s not terribly invested in finding out – and besides, he’s pretty sure dropping _the captain’s nephew_ would get him fired or at least demoted to Internal Affairs.

Better not to risk it.)

“Wouldn’t you rather sit with your mom?” he asks instead. “Or your grandma, or – hey, why don’t you go sit with Lieutenant Awashima? She’ll freak out and make my night.”

The kid blinks up at him without a word. On second thought, Saruhiko thinks maybe he’d rather be stuck with the girl. At least she _talks_. This one’s starting to get a little creepy.

He clicks his tongue and leans back against the wall with a long-suffering sigh, closing his eyes. The kid takes advantage of him letting his guard slip and promptly starts trying to use his torso as a climbing wall, shoving a sharp knee into his stomach in the process. An unpleasantly sticky hand brushes against his temple, knocking his glasses askew.

“Hey!” He deflects the second attempt, snapping back to attention in time to catch that tiny hand in his own. “My glasses aren’t a toy. I’m not your uncle, I _need_ those to _see_.”

“Glasses,” the kid repeats, and makes another grab with his free hand. Saruhiko pushes him, gently, to arm’s length, and he falls back onto his butt between Saruhiko’s outstretched legs. Thankfully, he does not start screaming.

“So you can talk.”

He looks away, like he’s suddenly all shy again. Saruhiko followers his gaze towards the captain’s mother and Awashima, and feels a sharp pang of jealousy; he knows Awashima doesn’t feel any more at home here than he does, but at least she’s better at hiding it. If he had to make polite conversation over the captain’s baby pictures, _he’d_ probably be the one screaming.

“What’s your name?” he asks the kid. He feels kind of ridiculous trying to hold a conversation with someone who hasn’t figured out full sentences yet, but ignoring him hasn’t done a whole lot of good. At least a toddler doesn’t know enough about social norms to care if Saruhiko’s being rude.

“…Kai.”

“Kai, huh? I’m Fushimi.”

“'Shimi,” Kai echoes, as he staggers to his feet and makes another attempt, soon foiled, at climbing Mt. Saruhiko.

This time when Saruhiko pushes him back Kai starts climbing over his leg, but before Saruhiko can get his hopes up he stops halfway and flops down instead. Jiggling his leg a little to try and dislodge him is completely ineffective. He’s going to be stuck here forever, isn’t he? Held captive by this tiny, sticky, partially-grown person.

This tiny, sticky person who soon falls asleep and starts drooling on his thigh.

He sighs – again – and slumps back against the wall, cracking open one eye as an afterthought just to make sure Kai isn’t plotting another attempt to steal his glasses. (If he is, he’s a pretty convincing actor.) He doesn’t want to be here. He’d rather be anywhere else – even paperwork is starting to sound appealing, though he’d much rather be in his room than the office, if he’s entirely honest.

Kai has the right idea.

There’s something almost… endearing about the kid, he thinks, sticky hands and drool and all. Maybe because Saruhiko can remember being the quiet child – not _this_ young, but young enough to be overshadowed by just about everyone else, and still too young to figure out how to fight back. Which really isn’t what he wants to think about right now, but once they’ve started down that road, his thoughts aren’t in any hurry to pick a different path.

What was it the captain said earlier? _Maybe the gloomy part of Fushimi-kun is sympathetic to his shy wavelength._ “I’m not _gloomy_ ,” he tells Kai. But maybe there’s a little bit of truth to that. Just a little.

Kai’s not the only one who’s gone down for the night; his sister’s passed out too, and without her running around it’s gone quiet enough not to give Saruhiko any more of a headache. He stares out at the back yard, listens without really listening to Awashima’s increasingly strained commentary on yet another photo album, and as pins and needles slowly crawl up the leg Kai’s repurposed as a pillow his thoughts start to drift.

The precarious arrangements between the Clans are falling apart. Saruhiko doesn’t know what’s going to happen, or who’s going to make it out of this in one piece – he knows very little, really, little enough that it scares him.

He doesn’t want to be here in the captain’s parents’ house, making nice with strangers, getting drool and God knows what else all over his clothes. But at the same time, he desperately wants more than just this brief glimpse of normality… for himself, and for the people for whom it is normal.

“I hope,” he says, more to himself than the toddler asleep in his lap, “that you have a lot more opportunities to bug your uncle.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always very welcome! You can also find me on Tumblr at [akameniseis](akameniseis.tumblr.com/).


End file.
